Alcohol & Printheads... what do you think?

[The Hat]

Wondering_Mike I use Canon compabitle ink mixed 1:1 with universal ink. Recipe for clogs I know, but it works for me. If we call this mixed ink, formula A than mix formula A with windex in the prementioned parts (5 parts windex, 95 parts formula A).

Is that whats called Spring Cleaning.
Forget about your Whites, you must have the cleanest colours in the country..

 

[arcon5]

Interesting stuff here!!!!

I am importing pigment inks from China for a HP Z2100 large format printer and have been for around 5-6 months now. I am a heavy volume printer and just recently printheads have been wearing at a phonomenal rate -- particularly the Y/M printhead. I have started taking out this part and wiping with hot water on a sheet of kitchen roll to get what appears to be dried inks off.
Otherwise when I print the 'diagnostic image' the yellow prints very faint and affects the output colour match quality.

So this is because of the inks?

Can anybody recommend a supplier for the HP 70 cartridges that are compatibles?

 

[printfan1138]

After reading and trying some of the many print clog cures over the years I now strongly feel that there are just two products I'd trust to clean my print heads, The first is a good dedicated print head cleaner and the second is Windex. I don't doubt that other things have been used successfully but for me at least I have had the best experiences with just one or both of these products. I avoid built in head cleaning tools and just use nozzle checks and printing purge pages including pages of solid color at times. The method I like is to fill empty refillable cartridges for the printer I'm cleaning with cleaning fluid and print with them. After a few purge pages and giving the cleaners some time between printing I usually find myself back to clean pages with all colors firing. In severe cases patience helps a lot and several days might be required to get things humming again but if you print say, a page a day that is rare. Sure, if a printer sits for months at a time with no attention it will often clog big time but then if you treat the family that way your wife might leave you and the dog might bite you! Happy Printing!

 

[fotofreek]

Printing a full page of color on a canon printer with a partially blocked printhead can end up burning out the clogged portion of the printhead. It is a very good technique for changing to a different ink and purging the old ink that is in the printhead, providing the printhead has no clogged nozzles. When using cleaning carts with windex it is safest to do the head cleaning routines in the canon driver as the viscosity and components may not be as kind to the nozzles as ink. Hopefully, cleaning solutions that are sold specifically for making a cleaning cart are matched to the inks so they can be used in a printing routine rather than a driver nozzle cleaning cycle. Of course, you have the concern that running a cleaning cycle too often with windex or any other solution dumps more fluid into the waste ink pads.

 

[qwertydude]

Canon definitely you do not want to print purge pages. I ended up burning out several nozzles on my IP4600 doing that. Buying a new print head is a swift kick to the wallet that I'm glad I don't have to do anymore that I switched to Epson.

 

[Wondering_Mike]

that running a cleaning cycle too often with windex or any other solution dumps more fluid into the waste ink pads.

So the advice is what? Print and 'clean' with moderation?

I reckon an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure (if you do not mind letting go the metric system for a moment there ).

BTW I think we are forgetting the question being asked here

So this is because of the inks?

Can anybody recommend a supplier for the HP 70 cartridges that are compatibles?

Is it because of the inks? I don't know honestly the only thing you can try is to switch inks (if that is an option)

Supplier for the HP 70?

Sorry, can't help there. Anyone else wanna have a go at this?

 

[fotofreek]

Wondering Mike - about the "Wandering Thread" - That does happen sometimes. About the cleaning cycle issue with a cleaning cart with a solution such as Windex - If you have a clog and it hasn't responded to simpler techniques that might avoid putting lots of fluid into the waste ink tank, it is certainly worth trying as it can be very effective. Fix the clog and worry about the waste ink tank issue if it later becomes a problem. It would be important to then run cleaning cycles with ink carts to purge the windex as fluids other than ink shouldn't be in the print head when doing a print run.

The same is true of using alcohol (the actual subject of this thread.) Alcohol is more volatile, flamable, a different viscosity, etc. Doing a print routine with alcohol in a canon printer may work OK, but I wouldn't do it as you are essentially using an electrical heating element to vaporize a fluid (ialcohol?) to propel ink droplets onto paper. I wouldn't advise running a printed purge page until all the alcohol is purged and replaced withi ink with cleaning cycles.

You are right that frequent printing of full color photos and an occasional cleaning cycle, if necessary beyond the ones that automatically run, would be the best prevention.